Heya, folks! We have returned and we are ready to go, onward!
Tessa stood at the back door of the restaurant, putting out the milk bottles for the next day, when she heard her uncle call down to her.
"Tessa," his now feeble voice called quietly. "May I have some soup?"
"Just let me lock up, uncle," she responded.
It had been a long day and she was tired, but she knew she couldn't let her uncle know that. He would feel awful and try to help her, getting himself even sicker. So she ran to the front entrance and locked it then walked up the stairs to the apartment, bowl of soup in hand.
"Here you go," she said, in a soothing voice. "How are you feeling?"
"Fine," he answered.
"If you're going to be okay I'm going to go to bed."
"That's just fine," he said, his voice sounding more tired then before.
Tessa got changed and climbed into bed. It was about nine thirty and she was so tired she was ready to fall over.
One hour and fifteen minutes later.
Clink!
The sound echoed through the silent building. Tessa's eyes popped open. "What was that?" she thought.
Rattle…rattle
"It can't be anything; uncle's asleep, isn't he?"
Tessa decided to go check what was making the noises, so she crept down the steps to see two large figures out side the back door, picking the lock. Tessa quickly assessed the situation.
"Out numbered, out weighed, and they probably have weapons, so fighting is out of the question. Solution: get uncle Jacob, get out and get help."
CRASH!
"Wait, how do we get out of here?"
Tessa looked down the stair way to see her two least favorite people: Oscar and Morris Delancey.
"Bad day, really REALLY BAD DAY!"
Tessa ran the rest of the way up the steps, not caring if she made noise, they already knew that she was here.
"Uncle," she said, shaking him. "Come on uncle, we've got to get you out of here."
"Why, what's wrong?" he asked tiredly.
"The Delancey brothers are down stairs and I don't think it's for the roast beef sandwiches."
"Tessa, you need to go get help, right now!"
"I can't leave you."
"You have to go; I'll never fit through the fire escape."
"What if they hurt you?!"
"I'll lock the door and brace it."
"Please uncle," she said, holding on to his hand. "Don't make me leave you."
"You have to go," he said, pushing her towards the window with a fire escape. "Get Jack he'll help."
Tessa looked at the window and then back to her uncle. "I'll be right back."
With that Tessa climbed out and ran to the lodging house.
------
Lodging house same time
"Come on Jack," Race said to his friend. "You've gotta ask her out and I mean a real date, not just an impromptu one.'
"As I said before, it was not a date, period."
"But you wanted it to be," Blink said, in a sing-songy voice.
"Who asked you any way?" Jack asked, with a light glare.
"Look Jack," Race said, in a getting-down-to-business voice. "I know you like her, they know you like her, Spot knows you like her, and for mercy's sake even you know you like her! The only one who doesn't know you like Tessa is Tessa. So you're going to tell her, whether you like it or not!"
Jack was about to responded when he heard a knock at the window. Looking towards it he saw one very freaked out Tessa.
"Tessa," Jack said, opening the window. "What's wrong?!"
"Restaurant-Uncle-Delancey brothers," she said, gasping for air (she ran all the way).
Jack was up in a second. Grabbing Tessa's wrist and passing her on to Bumlets.
"Watch her," he said strictly.
Bumlets passed her to Race, "I'm going to help Jack."
Race passed her to Snoddy saying the same thing. Tessa continued down the line of newsies until she was left with no one but Blink and the younger kids.
Blink turned around to pass her on to someone when he noticed that the others were gone.
"Where-but uh…Tumbler," Blink said pushing Tessa towards him. "Watch her."
-----
One fight scene later
What was left of Oscar and Morris could fill a thimble. We won't go into detail this is rated K+.
Jack watched as Tessa walked slowly back to the restaurant with Tumbler bouncing up and down next to her.
"Tessa," Jack said, giving her a hug. "You okay?"
"Where is my uncle?" she asked, not wasting anytime.
"He's a little roughed up," Jack answered.
Tessa ran into the kitchen and up the steps to find Dr. Bosco was already there.
----
Back with the newsies
"Boys," Jack said to the others. "Go home, I'll stay here for now, Blink make sure that everything in the lodging house is locked up, Skitts make sure the little ones get to bed."
A chorus of "will do"s went through the crowd. Jack walked up to the apartment and looked to the small morbid group.
Dr. Bosco looked at Jack and shook his head sadly.
Jack walked up and put his arm around Tessa's shoulder, as Dr. Bosco gave them update.
"All in all," the man said. "If he makes it through the night, he'll more then likely be fine. But he…he might not make it through the next twenty-four hours."
Jack looked from Dr. Bosco to Tessa. The look on Tessa's face almost broke his heart.
"What do I need to do?" Tessa asked trying to sound strong.
"Put a hot wet towel on his chest and a cold wet towel on his forehead. Change them as often as needed, you need to bring his temperature and keep him warm at he same time."
"I'll help her," Jack said.
"Good man," Dr. Bosco, with a sad smile. "I'll be back tomorrow."
And so began Tessa and Jack's long night.
Tada! Cliffie! We'll update as soon as possible!
Bravo Yankee Echo, Katrinka and Nori.